I HAD read the article in SN dated April 2014, where two Opposition MP’s, Ms. Renita Williams and Mr. Ronald Bulkhan criticised the government and my fellow Amerindian brothers and sisters who came out in protest against the actions of the AFC and APNU.It begged the question as to why did Miss Williams had to condemn us the Amerindians; in being ashamed of us isn’t she ashamed of herself too?
The way she addressed us, is as if she is “NOT” one of us. Why couldn’t she say my fellow Amerindians brothers and sisters when referring to us? This I think was a better way to address us. Anyway we are prone to members of other ethnicities calling us “Amerindians” or “bucks.”
Now I think here is where the differences comes. We want the Opposition to know that we the Amerindians are a more intelligent set of people and our representatives who are the Amerindians on the government side are intelligent. But those Opposition members who had asked some of these very Amerindians to vote/support them are the “bucks”, they are the illiterate ones. Maybe they don’t even have a sound primary/secondary education or even a degree and want to sit in parliament drawing tax payer money. That’s what they “SHOULD VOTE DOWN”. Why couldn’t Ms. Williams address this in parliament? For the one year Ms. Williams has been an MP we are not aware of any speech made by her in parliament; is she afraid of the Amerindians on the government side? Has the Opposition ever study the history of the 28 years they had this country of ours down? Thanks to Dr. Cheddi Jagan, who after becoming President in 1992, for recognising us the “Amerindians” this goes to show that Dr. Cheddi studied history and that he knew that the Amerindians were the first to settle in Guyana and he had always wanted us to rise from the bottom, where the PNC had us for 28 years, to the top.
Now that they cut the Amerindian Development Fund (ADF), my fellow Guyanese brothers and sisters do you know what they are going to do with our Amerindian youths? They will send them now to trafficking in person (TIP) this is where most of our youths will be headed to. They had promised our youths jobs; what about that promise? The community support officers (CSO) is not only for the PPP/C party but in my region they are a lot of AFC and APNU youths.
Why cut the ADF? Why couldn’t they have cut Linden electricity subsidy? Why question accountability when accountability in the PNC regime was 0%. Up to today we still sit back wondering what became of the 2.1 billion US dollars in debt the PNC left us in. We had not benefited from anything, instead we faced severe hardship for 28 years. And this is what they want this beautiful country of ours to go to again. “NEVER” Some of these very Amerindians who they had voted against have them with their one seat majority today.
We want the Opposition to know that we will not accept being at the bottom of their feet: “Never!”

And in doing so we are demanding an apology from Ms. Williams and the Opposition this must be done in parliament. We just want them to know that it is the nine (9) tribes of Amerindians they are interfering with, we are a very strong and powerful set of people. If “NO” apology the next protest we would be coming in larger numbers and force.
ANSON PAUL